A data center may be defined as a location, for instance, a room that houses computer systems arranged in a number of racks. These racks are configured to house a number of computer systems which typically include a number of printed circuit boards (PCBs), mass storage devices, power supplies, processors, micro-controllers, and semi-conductor devices, that dissipate relatively significant amounts of heat during their operation. As such, the computer systems often consume a great deal of energy in performing various computing functions.
To cool the computer systems, hydronics systems within the data centers have been used to distribute chilled water from a chiller plant to individual computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units contained in the data centers. CRAC units that rely upon hydronics systems typically function to cool airflow circulating through the data centers by causing heat from the airflow to be conveyed to the chilled water. In addition, the computer systems draw in the cooled airflow and are cooled through the exchange of heat with the cooled airflow. The CRAC units receive the heated airflow and repeat the cooling process to substantially continuously cool the computer systems.
While the use of hydronics systems in this manner has been found to be relatively robust and flexible, there are some limitations on the amount of heat the CRAC units are capable of removing at the rack level. It would therefore be beneficial to be able to utilize hydronics systems that afford greater control over the provisioning of cooling at multiple levels within a structure.